Massry’s surrogate court petitions headed to court, too

There’s no question that Republican Norman Massry’s campaign didn’t file enough petition signatures this month to get on the ballot for Albany County Surrogate Court.

Frankly, it wasn’t even close.

At 82 pages, the filing was short of what it needed to be, assuming each page had a full 20 signatures (they didn’t) and every signature was valid (unlikely).

By the count of one of his would-be opponents, Democrat Richard Sherwood of Guilderland, Massry filed only about half of the required 2000 1,797 signatures. (Keep in mind that candidates had less than two weeks to collect the signatures due to the timing of the ouster of Judge Cathryn Doyle, which created the opening.)

While Massry’s filing was plainly light, the Albany County Board of Elections ruled that the objection lodged against it was too vague because it did not state how many Massry needed or how short he was.

Sherwood’s allies are also pressing in court today (the hearing has been pushed to Monday) to invalidate the petitions of the other Democrat in the race, former Albany County Surrogate Court Chief Clerk Stacy Pettit.

Pettit’s petitions survived an initial challenge at the Albany County Board of Elections, but election lawyer James Long is arguing that too many of the roughly 2,600 Democratic signatures filed by Pettit were from ineligible signatories or were collected by notaries public or commissioners of deeds who were not Democrats and did not properly administer an oath to the people signing Pettit’s petitions.

As a result, Long contends, fewer than 2,000 of Pettit’s signatures are actually valid.

One Response

Ther are rules for some ….but not for everyone …Massry was short on his endorsements for the candidacy of Family court Judge against Peggy Walsh who is unoppossed at this point in time . How can a judge rule that he Massry can be on the ballott ..when the rules say that you must have a certain amount of signatures to become a candidate … rediculus